Reminds of me drivers that bitch about parking tickets. Park legally and you won’t get a ticket. Done and done. However, this is way more serious, so the fact the police are being proactive WILL save lives.

That Santa Rosa parking garage is kind of a poster child for the need for parking reform.

Also, according to that article, the government paid $27m in 1983 for the construction of the garage. That’s $57m in 2011 dollars. Next time someone brings up the cost of or subsidy to SMART or other such projects, consider that! $57 million for a single developer of a single project to build parking garages.

http://www.livablestreets.com/people/jass jass

Re: Santa Rosa Mall article.

It’s amazing that 95% of the people commenting dont see how the free parking hurts them. If all the prime spots are taken before the mall even opens, how is that good for the stores or the shoppers?

Mind you, this goes for all malls. Visit your local mall parking lot 20 minutes before opening, and count the hundreds of cars already there, taking all the prime spots. Nope, those aren’t shoppers desperate to get into the mall at 9am, they’re the employees, parking as close as possible.

People can be so irrational when it comes to parking.

Nick

Yesteday, a guy slammed his car into a lightpole on San Jose Avenue. Nice that he was able to cross a non-physically protected bike lane and a sidewalk and still bend the lightpole in half.

I have pictures if anyone is interested (Is there a San Jose Avenue coalition yet?).

Otto

Jass,

My reading of the Santa Rosa parking fee proposal was that it was to solve exactly that problem ,i.e. of having commuters taking all the best parking spots who then walk to their jobs, often blocks away.

By charging for parking, and particularly for all-day parking, those commuters would be driven away, leaving the car park for those intended i.e. shoppers.

Those shoppers would have to pay an hourly charge, but any store that is worried about the effect of that on business can offer validation for parking with a minimum purchase, much as happens at various places in SF.

http://www.livablestreets.com/people/msonn mikesonn

“,i.e. of having commuters taking all the best parking spots who then walk to their jobs, often blocks away.”

Well back, Otto. You dipped away for a few days, but reemerged as new moniker. Like a phoenix!

The prime parking is taken by workers inside the mall. Just like on-street parking is taken by workers at shops in SF and then the businesses complain they don’t have enough parking. If you, as a business owner, are truly worried about customer access then fight to have better ped, transit, bike access to your store, not only for your customers, but more importantly your employees.

Otto

Mikesonn,

The cited article does talk about commuters in downtown offices parking at the mall anyway, since it’s free. I think it’s legitimate to tackle that “abuse”.

As for mall employees having to pay to park for work, that is something to be addressed on a business-by-business basis. One store may choose to pay for their employees’ parking; another may not.

I can certainly agree with you that a downtown location should make use of transit. However, at least on my visits to Santa Rosa, there doesn’t seem to be much transit – Santa Rosa is very suburban. So fix that first, and then you can bulldoze the parking structure. Doesn’t really work the other way about.

“The transit mall handles about 5 million passengers a year and is among the busiest in the Bay Area.

Transit Director Bob Dunlavey said 500 buses from three systems — CityBuses, Sonoma County Transit and Golden Gate Transit — pass through the transfer station carrying an estimated 12,000 to 15,000 passengers daily, or about 400,000 a month.”

maaaty

On the crosswalk sting, I wish I could operate these every day for the rest of my life. Go, police.

John Murphy

“However, at least on my visits to Santa Rosa, there doesn’t seem to be much transit – Santa Rosa is very suburban.”

Santa Rosa is served by Golden Gate Transit, Sonoma County Transit, and Santa Rosa City Bus. Yes, three somewhat overlapping and independent services. The central hub for all that transit is the Santa Rosa Transit Mall at 2nd and B – 2 blocks from the Plaza Mall.

er… what mikesonn said. But Mike – re-read Otto’s post – it’s completely rational. The mall should charge for parking to get rid of the non-users of the mall, and give X amount of placards to employees, which are not valid on the first level. Validate shoppers parking. Problem solved.

http://www.livablestreets.com/people/msonn mikesonn

“It’s hard enough to get a job, let alone afford parking on top of insurance and gas and a mortgage and everything else,” she said. “Simon sucks.”

Yes, can you believe the nerve of them not providing FREE parking? Owning a car isn’t the problem at all, it’s those damn greedy capitalists that want to squeeze you for everything you’re worth.